


Neville Longbottom and the Merpeople's Gift

by Janieohio



Series: IWSC Challenge Oneshots [8]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Adventure, Gen, Inspired by Indiana Jones, Merpeople, Professor Neville Longbottom, Students
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-15
Updated: 2021-01-15
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:46:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28776291
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Janieohio/pseuds/Janieohio
Summary: Underwater caves, secret shrines, and fabled relics... It's all in a day's work for Professor Neville Longbottom.
Series: IWSC Challenge Oneshots [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1614058
Comments: 10
Kudos: 17





	Neville Longbottom and the Merpeople's Gift

**Author's Note:**

> Happy January, everyone. I'm back to another season of the writing competition for the International Wizarding School Competition. It will run through late spring and each story will be judged on the themes and prompts set forwards by the competition. That means I'll be writing things other than what I might normally (cough cough, Drarry, though I'll slip a few of those in, I'm sure), and they'll all be one-shots. Don't worry, I'll still be writing other Drarry stories and publishing those periodically. I hope you enjoy these other stories in the meantime.
> 
> Oh, and ten points to your house if you can identify the character/movies that inspired my Neville, here, without looking at the story tags. :D Let me know in the comments if you find the little Easter eggs related to it.

He'd found them.

It'd taken Neville nearly a decade of research, unsure if they even truly existed, struggling to track down rumours and folk tales and brief mentions in old books. Now, he'd not only confirmed their existence, but they were here before him, close enough to touch.

Neville withdrew his wand from his Muggle wetsuit; the slight ripples of sunlight across the ocean floor visible from his position in the cave, although beautiful, were an insufficient light-source.

"Lumos," he whispered reverently, and the room exploded in colour.

Pinks, golds, and silvers sparkled in the rocks above his head; the minerals glowing in the wand light. Stalactites dripped down from the ceiling like glistening dragon fangs, and along the floor of the cavern, near where his feet were carefully placed on the uneven rock, were treasures—offerings to the creatures that called this cave their home.

For they were sacred.

When Neville had first heard mention of the Eeahsee Conch, he'd been sceptical. Surely, a mythical sea snail with healing abilities would be in high demand in the wizarding world if it truly existed. But he had refused to dismiss the possibility. If it were true, then maybe… No. He hadn't even allowed himself to think about what _could_ be until he knew more.

But they were real. He simply had to obtain one of their abandoned shells and return with it, and then, well, then they'd see.

Dozens of the large creatures were tucked up under the ledges of the cave where depressions in the rock had created small tidal pools. _Dozens_. Neville let out a nervous laugh, fidgeting with the clasp on the satchel tied across his chest.

The magnitude of what he could do with so many of these priceless animals assaulted his mind. Their meat could fetch him millions of galleons once people recognised their value. A pair of them could breed. And the things he could do with their shells, the people he could help…

But no. He'd promised. He'd promised Luna as she'd helped him prepare for his journey, and he'd promised himself. He would _not_ be tempted. He would take what he came for and nothing more.

A single empty Eeahsee Conch shell was capable of healing all ailments...even those of the mind.

Neville's heart sped up at the idea, but he quickly stopped his thoughts from going down that path; he was letting himself get distracted. He had very limited time, as the carved shells, beaded necklaces, and other works of Mermish art made it clear; his being here would not be appreciated.

" _Revelio,"_ he said quietly, urging his magic to reveal the shells that held life. He would leave those alone.

Nearly three feet from the pool he'd used to enter the subaquatic cave was a beautiful, large pink shell showing no signs of life. Careful not to disturb the gifts that had been left on what he now realised was a shrine, he approached the shell.

The animal who once lived in this shell must have been very old because the shell was massive, nearly fifteen inches wide. Neville ran his finger along the pink lip, the surface so silky smooth, he nearly lost his breath. He glanced at the other shells around him, some moving slightly as their occupants adjusted their positions, and he felt an overwhelming sense of his own insignificance by viewing these amazing creatures. He was beginning to understand their idolisation by the Merpeople.

" _You cannot take something so valuable without giving in return."_ Luna's words came back to him, so he reached into his satchel and withdrew the ivory conch carving he'd brought with him, a truly beautiful work of art that he'd found during his research and travels. It felt like a worthy gift to these animals.

He lifted the shell he'd chosen and replaced it with the carving, then slipped his treasure into the satchel and fastened the clasp. He took another moment to study the cave, sure Luna would want to view his memory, and his eye caught on the far wall. Here, the rock had been smoothed.

Neville poured more magic into his wand, brightening his spell, and suddenly a beautiful, life-sized mural was revealed. Squinting, he could see that older, primitive drawings of merpeople being healed had been overlaid with a full-coloured painting of a stately merwoman, her head beset with a large crown, bowing down and laying gifts upon a dais.

It was breathtaking, and Neville had to force himself to pull his eyes away.

He stepped back to the pool's edge and readied his Gillyweed. It was roughly a thirty-minute swim through the sea caves and back to the surface. He'd managed to make his way here undetected and unscathed, but he wasn't naive enough to believe he'd have as easy of a swim back.

He swallowed the weed, the slime oozing down his throat, and tucked his wand away. It was only seconds later that the gills began to form, but before he was able to jump down into the water and take a blessed breath of water, a screech resonated through the silence.

"Bloody hell," he choked out, but he was unable to do anything other than dive into the water, deprived of oxygen if he stayed on land. If he had someone to answer to for his acquisition, so be it. At least he'd be able to breathe.

* * *

"So," Neville said, sitting on the desk in front of his students, "as you can see, just because a magical being is classified as a creature by our Ministry doesn't mean they're uncivilised. The Merpeople have a very structured society, and as I just explained, have a theology and system of worship very similar to those in South American Aztec cultures. We might view them as primitive, but they are people in all the ways that matter and deserve to be treated with respect."

"Professor?"

Neville smiled at the third-year Ravenclaw, her dark blonde hair pulled back by a blue-and-bronze headband. "Yes, Miss Rogers?"

"Why does the Ministry classify them as a creature, then?"

"Good question. Wizards, European wizards especially, have a long history of seeing anyone not like us as something less. But it raises a good question. Does what you call something actually define it?"

The students' faces ranged from confused to thoughtful, but none of them was outright belligerent. Perfect. A hand shot up from a Slytherin in the first row. He was a tall, lanky, intelligent boy.

"Mr Greengrass?"

"I don't get it."

Neville smiled. "Well, I've heard you're good at potions, yes?"

Henry Greengrass nodded.

"Well, Muggles generally avoid a particular plant with purple flowers. They have several different names for it, but some know it as devil's helmet or blue rocket. They know it's poisonous and not to use it, as it can kill." He looked around at the students for any signs of recognition. "Would you think that's a useful plant?"

The students, as a whole, shook their heads.

"What if I were to tell you _we_ know the plant as aconite, monkshood, or wolfsbane? Would you think it's useful now?"

Their eyes widened, Mr Greengrass's in particular, and Neville couldn't suppress his grin. He had them. Teaching was awesome.

"It doesn't matter what the Ministry calls other magical races. It doesn't define them. They are who they are, and by treating them with the respect they deserve, you'll be honouring them and, by extension, yourselves."

The students were silent for longer than Neville expected. Thirteen-year-olds were rarely this still.

"Professor," Phillip Jones, a short, blond Ravenclaw with large eyes, called out. He reminded Neville of Luna in a strange way. "What happened when you got out of the cave, then? And how can you tell us to treat them with respect when you stole one of their relics?"

"Well, let's start with your second question, as it somewhat answers your first. Did I actually steal a relic? The Merpeople worship the Eeahsee Conch, that's true. This was just a shell left behind from a deceased animal."

Mr Jones opened his mouth to continue arguing his point, but Neville held up his hand with a laugh.

"But you're right. I did take one without asking, _and_ from a place I knew was sacred to them. When I jumped back into the water, two Merpeople were waiting for me by the underwater entrance to the caves. I chose to go with them to the surface where I was able to show I'd not taken any actual live conches. A friend of mine who speaks Mermish was in the boat waiting for me, and she was able to explain my purpose to them. They allowed me to go, but they made us swear an oath we'd not disclose the location, nor would we return."

The students looked on, jaws slack and eyes wide.

"But what was your purpose, Professor?" the Ravenclaw asked. "Why was it so important? Why would you go through all that?"

Neville smiled softly and let his eyes wander to the sky outside the window of the classroom. It was a clear autumn day with large, fluffy clouds floating across the blue sky. "To achieve my heart's desire," he said softly. "Now"–he turned back to the class, his voice and heart lighter–"who can tell me what kind of magical creatures I had to watch out for when I was underwater? Miss Weasley?"

* * *

Neville watched the students in his last class of the school day file out the door. He did a quick sweep through the classroom, picking up a fallen quill, a scrap of parchment, and a fifth-year textbook from the floor. "Nox," he muttered, extinguishing the lights and turning to his office.

He stopped by the replica of the Eeahsee Conch shell placed on the corner of his desk. He'd had it made the previous year when the original had been turned over to Unspeakables for study—after he'd used it, of course. Perhaps they'd be able to find a way to replicate its healing abilities.

He ran his finger over the pink lip of the replica shell, remembering the smoothness of the original as though it were yesterday. He sighed and leaned over to grab his brimmed hat. He set it on his head and adjusted it so it sat just right, then approached the fireplace. He threw in some Floo powder and stepped through into a comfortable sitting room.

"Mum, Dad? I've come for dinner!"

"We're back here!" a woman's cheerful voice called from the kitchen, and he grinned. He hurried through the room, barely glancing at the photographs hanging on the wall, two versions of a smiling and waving couple with their son—a chubby infant in one and a grown man, scarred and confident, in the other.

Incurable, the Healers had said for as long as he could remember; he'd even overheard one insensitive Healer call them vegetables. But Neville had never seen it that way. They just hadn't found a way to heal them, yet.

After all, the difference between a weed and a flower is simply judgement. And Neville had dared to see the flower.

* * *

_Finis_

**Author's Note:**

> Competition information used for inspiration:  
> Theme: Write about a character striving to achieve their heart's desire.  
> Special Rule: Create an object of worship  
> Mandatory Prompt: [Character] Neville Longbottom  
> Additional Prompt(s): [Quote] "The difference between a weed and a flower is judgement."—Dakota Johnson, [Object] Mural


End file.
